2. The Mysterious Caller

Sofia's POV

What the hell did I just hear him say?

He seems to have paused, definitely waiting for my response but I was just too stunned to speak.

Was he kidding right now?

The caller continued speaking after my prolonged silence.

"Miss Sofia. Are you there? Can you hear me?"

I cleaned my face with my hand and cleared my throat. "Sure. I'm Sofia Dante; the professional therapist on On-help. How may I be of help Mr... ? "

"Good... I tried contacting you via your mail but it was invalid so I called the number on your profile" He spoke politely and calmly, and I couldn't help but smile and scratch the back of my head.

"My boss needs your therapy service. What do you say 6 pm today? I'll send a vehicle over to pick you up from the address on your profile. That's your current address, right?" He inquired.

I stammered as I responded to him. "Sure... Y-yeah. You're right, that's my address"

Did he say he'll send a vehicle over?

He also talked about a boss.

This person must be fvcking rich from the way he speaks and yet, I found it difficult to believe this was real.

"Okay then, Miss Sofia. 6 pm it is. I also noticed there's no price per session tag on your profile. I believe 20 will be okay by you?"

I fvcking knew it. This was some sort of bullsh¡t orchestrated by psychotic heads who roam the application to cause havoc.

Twenty dollars for a session? This was a joke and she understands now.

"Are you there?"

"20 dollars?" I said calmly yet annoyed that my hope was risen for a moment.

"No. 20 thousand dollars, Miss Sofia. We are paying you 20 thousand dollars for a session with the boss, he really needs it at the moment"

My eyes almost fell out of their socket, my eyes blinked a thousand times in one second and my jaw remained dropped to welcome any passing fly that desired a nice warm home.

This was definitely an imagination and not real.

"Are you there? If that's not enough, we'll double it. Forty thousand dollars per session, Sofia Dante. Would that be okay now?"

I found my voice this time even though I was still recovering from shock. "Yeah. Totally. I'll be prepared"

"6 pm then" He hung up the call and that was when I managed to close my open mouth.

I clenched the phone in my hands and shook my head, still not believing the things I just heard.

Forty thousand dollars per session?

Unbelievable!

You're probably wondering what the tech girl has to do with therapy.

That's right.

I'm not exactly a therapist; nothing close to it.

On-help was an online mobile platform, a marketplace for self-employed freelancers to connect with clients either physically or virtually and get paid per service they render.

Four months earlier, I had decided to get hooked on the application and be self-employed in a particular tech job but failed to get any clients as my profile had zero credentials to prove I was capable of the job.

To test out the mobile platform at first, I created a fake profile with another account to get used to the app's environment.

The service I claimed I could offer on my profile was psychotherapy and I used my real number and address on it.

Just for trial before creating my tech profile.

Somehow, someone had found that fake profile of mine and believed I was a licensed therapist.

Licensed? Anyone who believed that profile is real was clearly blind in both eyes.

No credential on my profile or link to a licensing board to prove I was licensed to practice therapy.

Zero reviews from clients to who I had offered service before.

Nothing!

The profile was clearly screaming scam.

I pinched the roof of my nose and for a moment, decided to think towards the positive side.

What If this was a miracle?

I used to believe in miracles and religion when I was a child but I stopped believing after Papá's death.

What if someone decided to give me a try or something like that?

I tried to think of possible scenarios that could lead one to choose my service out of several certified therapists on the app who had thousands of reviews and whose profiles screamed 'licensed!'.

If I, Sofia, was in my right senses, I would rethink this over and over again but I spent the previous night listening to a motivational speaker on Tiktok who mentioned nothing great is ever achieved without taking risk.

This was a crazy risk but I'm damn crazy.

I'm fvcking crazy.

I moved home as quickly as possible and prepared myself to play the role of a certified therapist.

Engaged myself with watching several therapy videos on YouTube and reading therapy books on G****e.

I ran through the entire internet to grab anything that could help me and by 5 pm...

I was now a psychotherapist certified by G****e and YouTube... The other sites only contributed a little so I'm not gonna give them credit.

I used the one hour left to dress properly in my best outfit, hung a pair of glasses over my nose and boom, I waited outside.

While waiting I had an actual rethink of the risk I was about to pull out and for a moment it wasn't worth it.

I fvcking needed money right now but this could also be greed trying to dominate my mind.

Why would someone rich seek a session with a therapist with no license and agree to pay forty thousand fvcking dollars?

He could hire anyone else, a professional and not me.

I, Sofia, was a bad choice for therapy.

You take physiological advice from me and the chances of committing suicide the following day are pretty high.

"Your craziness is beginning to go off the handle.." I scolded and hit myself continuously on the head until I was satisfied with it.

I would continue my job-seeking adventure by tomorrow and see what good comes out of it.

No credential was needed to grab per-time jobs.

At exactly 6 pm, I heard the noise of a vehicle outside and pulled the blinds carefully to see the beauty parked by the side of the road.

A white Rolls-Royce Phantom whose front door immediately pushed open revealing the driver who stepped out in a black tuxedo and had dark shades on.

I took my time to appreciate the look of the luxurious vehicle and wondered who this boss was exactly.

Either way, I wasn't gonna embark on this trip anymore.

I closed the blinds with my eyes shut, rested my head on the arm of the couch and a few minutes later my phone buzzed strongly.

I could guess who the caller was already and it was confirmed when I picked up my device and then accepted the call.

"Miss Sofia, the assigned driver just arrived at your place"

They must have waited for me already and I wasn't showing up.

"Um... I'm sorry Mr, I forgot I had another appointment around this time so I'm deeply sorry to disappoint you. Find someone else"

'Find someone else' in quotes so he doesn't make an attempt to fix another session but he did not get the message.

"The driver would be waiting then. When you're done, he'll drive you over"

My jaw dropped in shock and my eyes blinked in confusion.

Why exactly is this man obsessed with an unlicensed therapist?

The picture was becoming clear.

I quickly unlocked my door and moved down the apartment's corridor while telling him, "I'm sorry Mr, I won't be able to attend to your boss anymore. Hire someone else on On-help. I'm just gonna have to tell your driver that, he shouldn't wait"

I intended to meet with the assigned driver and apologize before asking him to leave, kindly, but the turn of events caught me off guard.

The mysterious caller seems to turn away from the phone and spoke to some person in Italian.

It was now I noticed he had the accent in his voice the entire time.

Just like me, I look and speak like an American so no one can easily guess I'm Italian.

And yes, I heard the message he just conveyed loud and clear as my head decoded to English.

"I told him it's suspicious picking the last on the list. We don't have time to arrange another therapist for the boss, Kidnap her for him by whatever means you can"

I stopped instantly and electricity passed through my system like I'd been hit by a stun gun.

My heart rate increased drastically and enough beads of sweat formed on my forehead.

Kidnap? Who the fvck is this person exactly?

I instantly cancelled my plan to meet with the driver and turned to run into my room but bumped into a huge figure who remained unmoved.

'When did he get there? ' I ask myself and quickly apologized, "Sorry..."

I made to move past him when his masculine voice sounded in the strangest way possible. "Sofia Dante, The boss doesn't take no for an answer"

Realizing he was up to no good, I turned around to make for the entrance door but immediately it pushed open and the driver in a tuxedo stepped inside.

"Are you in a rush to go someone?" He asked and it dawned on me how much trouble I have gotten myself into.

These people wanted to take me and the only thing I could do was try to scream.

My loud voice was interrupted by a firm hand over my mouth and something sharp pierced into the side of my neck.

I wasn't sure what was passed into my bloodstream but my screams became whispers, my bones weakened to the core and most importantly my vision started to become blur.

The motherfvcker drugged me.

Although I couldn't see properly again, my hearing still worked fine to hear the masculine voice behind me say. "We have the therapist now"

Fvcking hell! I don't know why these people are obsessed with a fake therapist who can cause them to commit suicide but one thing lingered forever in my head.

Who the hell is this psychotic boss they talk about?